Asymmetric switching and storage effects in ferroelectric and antiferroelectric gels and polymers

Ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures containing photochemical crosslinkers are found to exhibit asymmetric switching properties if the crosslinking p rocess was performed under the influence of an electric field. This behavio r can be attributed to the stabilizing effect of the polymer network on the ferroelectric state of the appropriate polarity. We report on the electro- optic properties of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric samples crosslinked with and without an applied electric field. Samples with sufficiently high content of the mesogenic crosslinker can be used for photo-optical storage effects which occur in both ferroelectric and antiferroelectric systems.